Immigrants breathe new life into communities by starting businesses, attending churches and rebuilding neighborhoods.The hope, resilience and joy we share renews our faith in what is possible when we live an “American Dream” of solidarity together.
Springfield, Ohio is one of the hundreds of small towns and cities I see all across America that are being revitalized by new arrivals. From Iowa to Minnesota and Maine, I have seen with my own eyes what happens when immigrants move to places where factories have closed and longtime residents have moved away. Immigrants breathe new life into these communities by starting businesses, attending churches and rebuilding homes and neighborhoods.
![Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-12345]](https://ourfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/iiif-service_pnp_highsm_10200_10256-full-pct_25-0-default-1024x683.jpg)
Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, DC. Courtesy of Carol Highsmith and the Library of Congress.
This is not the story of immigration you hear from Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance. They spread lies and promote stereotypes. With these lies, they seek to break our spirit and sense of who we are. They seek to divide us and make us doubt ourselves, as well as those who are different from us.
Trump and Vance invented a lie about how Springfield’s most recent arrivals, many of whom are Haitians who came to escape violence, eat dogs and cats. These lies were quickly denounced by local authorities, from the mayor to the governor of Ohio, who affirmed the benefits immigrants bring to the city.
But Trump and Vance knew what they were doing with their lies. They stir up feelings that have dangerous consequences. Soon after their comments, Neonazis arrived in Springfield to threaten residents, with dozens of bomb threats in schools and city offices.
The purpose of these lies is to distract us from the fact that Trump and Vance don’t offer solutions for the real problems our country faces. When they demonize us, they divide us, and put the lives of innocent people and whole communities at risk. With their words, they want to desensitize us so that we start to see people who are different from ourselves as evil monsters, so we’ll then accept their violent removal. This is the dark vision that emerges from the minds and mouths of Trump and Vance.
The first phase of the blueprint for Trump’s next presidency, Project 2025, calls for the mass deportation of more than eleven million people, with the militarization of local police to carry out this brutal mission. Families will be torn apart, and children separated from their parents. Again. This dark future is something that neither I, or any conscious person, should ever vote for.
Many people have come to the United States to escape this kind of violence. This is one of the many reasons I’m supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to be our next president and vice president. They offer the vision of a United States that becomes stronger as we move forward together, embracing our differences, instead of looking backwards in fear.
I refuse to accept a United States where people look at each other as enemies and families are destroyed; where communities crumble, and where the promise of the United States as a refuge for those in search of a better life fades under the control of the powerful few like Trump.
Immigrants memorial in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Courtesy of Carol Highsmith and the Library of Congress.
Just like all of the immigrants who have sought refuge in the United States, our communities have come here for a better present, and to build a better future. Our “American Dream” is not exceptional, but that’s its strength: it is a dream of solidarity, shared by all, whether we got here yesterday or a hundred years ago.
Our nation’s future is on the line, and the choice between these two paths - of fear with Trump, or hope with Harris - will define what the United States becomes: a country ruled by force and hate, or one where everyone — no matter where they come from, their skin color, or the language they speak at home — has the opportunity to contribute to our communities, living in peace and with dignity.
Everything depends on this decision we will make when we vote in a few weeks. The choice is in our hands.
